Brock Landers
12-01-2000, 04:31 PM
"Escape From New York" (8/10)
"Escape From New York" is a very dated film…I mean, when I think futuristic I don't think 1997 and cheesy/crappy synthesized music, ya know, but still the film holds up as solid entertainment, dig? John Carpenter and Kurt Russell have created one of action cinema's most memorable anti-heroes in Snake Plissken…nobody likes him and nobody should…he's mean, he's a smart-ass, he's unpredictable and smarmy, he's one tough, take-no-crap son-of-a-bitch…but even with all of that against him, he is damn likable…creative writing and an over-the-top performance from Russell make Snake a force to be reckoned with…This film is all Russell's, from beginning to end. (Probably one of his best) It also has some cool performances like Isaac "Truck Turner" Hayes as one bad mofo…
The year is 1997…Crime in the United States is out of control…To help curb the crime rate, Manhattan Island has been converted into a high-security containment facility for some of the country's most hardened criminals. Once you're there, you're there for life. It's like a roach motel…criminals go in, but they don't come out. While traveling to a peace summit, Air Force One is hijacked and the President of the United States (Carpenter regular Donald Pleasance) crash lands in the Manhattan facility. Meanwhile a war hero and savage criminal named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is being transferred to the facility. He's offered a deal…bring back the President and he'll be excused of all his crimes…but he's only got twenty-four hours to do it and, as an added incentive, there's a lethal explosive charge in Plissken's body that will be ignited if he doesn't make it back in time…
It's a simple enough plot and director John Carpenter wastes no time getting to the action. Many of Carpenter's better films share a common central premise…a person or group of people being held captive in a remote space. Movies like "The Thing", "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Prince Of Darkness" are all based on the same principle, but "Escape From New York" has the most fun with it…you've got the evil overlord named Duke, criminal babes that look like hookers, a slimy President that's not worth saving and, of course, an endless supply of ammunition aka bullets…
Note: I watched this on the newly released MGM DVD and I just want to warn you now…PREPARE TO BE UNDERWHELMED…True, it is Anamorphic widescreen 2:35:1, but that is where the praise ends. The picture is riddled with splotches, specks and artifacts and full of problem blacks. The colors are faded and washed out and the picture is hazy and has a heavy grain effect. The film was supposed to have a muted color palette, but this version goes way beyond that. It does have a crappy looking trailer as an extra, but that is it. All in all, this disc blows…sucks…whatever…I hope MGM does a better job on John Carpenter's "The Fog" DVD next year…
"Escape From New York" is a very dated film…I mean, when I think futuristic I don't think 1997 and cheesy/crappy synthesized music, ya know, but still the film holds up as solid entertainment, dig? John Carpenter and Kurt Russell have created one of action cinema's most memorable anti-heroes in Snake Plissken…nobody likes him and nobody should…he's mean, he's a smart-ass, he's unpredictable and smarmy, he's one tough, take-no-crap son-of-a-bitch…but even with all of that against him, he is damn likable…creative writing and an over-the-top performance from Russell make Snake a force to be reckoned with…This film is all Russell's, from beginning to end. (Probably one of his best) It also has some cool performances like Isaac "Truck Turner" Hayes as one bad mofo…
The year is 1997…Crime in the United States is out of control…To help curb the crime rate, Manhattan Island has been converted into a high-security containment facility for some of the country's most hardened criminals. Once you're there, you're there for life. It's like a roach motel…criminals go in, but they don't come out. While traveling to a peace summit, Air Force One is hijacked and the President of the United States (Carpenter regular Donald Pleasance) crash lands in the Manhattan facility. Meanwhile a war hero and savage criminal named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is being transferred to the facility. He's offered a deal…bring back the President and he'll be excused of all his crimes…but he's only got twenty-four hours to do it and, as an added incentive, there's a lethal explosive charge in Plissken's body that will be ignited if he doesn't make it back in time…
It's a simple enough plot and director John Carpenter wastes no time getting to the action. Many of Carpenter's better films share a common central premise…a person or group of people being held captive in a remote space. Movies like "The Thing", "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Prince Of Darkness" are all based on the same principle, but "Escape From New York" has the most fun with it…you've got the evil overlord named Duke, criminal babes that look like hookers, a slimy President that's not worth saving and, of course, an endless supply of ammunition aka bullets…
Note: I watched this on the newly released MGM DVD and I just want to warn you now…PREPARE TO BE UNDERWHELMED…True, it is Anamorphic widescreen 2:35:1, but that is where the praise ends. The picture is riddled with splotches, specks and artifacts and full of problem blacks. The colors are faded and washed out and the picture is hazy and has a heavy grain effect. The film was supposed to have a muted color palette, but this version goes way beyond that. It does have a crappy looking trailer as an extra, but that is it. All in all, this disc blows…sucks…whatever…I hope MGM does a better job on John Carpenter's "The Fog" DVD next year…